Networking Relationships with Business Clients: An Analysis Report

This report examines the critical role of networking relationships in business development. It highlights the advantages of establishing connections with business clients, such as facilitating information sharing and expanding customer bases, while also acknowledging the potential disadvantages. The report explores various methods for building these relationships, including advisory committees, colleagues, committees, government agencies, internal and external customers, lobby groups, local inter-agency groups, other organizations, professional associations, project-specific consultancies, support groups, suppliers, and work teams. It analyzes the strengths and weaknesses associated with each approach. Furthermore, the report emphasizes the importance of social media platforms and business events as key opportunities for establishing contacts with major business participants, ultimately aiming to foster harmonious and mutually beneficial relationships.

Running head: NETWORKING RELATIONSHIP
NETWORKING REALATIONSHIP
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
The main objective of the study is to identify the importance of establishing network
relationships with business clients. There are many advantage of establishing network
relationship with the business clients such as easy sharing of information, expanding the
customer’s base by reaching the potential customers and many others. However, the methods
that are used for establishing relationship with the customers can put the company in an
disadvantageous position.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Entering into networking relationships with business clients................................................4
Advisory committees.............................................................................................................4
Colleagues..............................................................................................................................5
Committee..............................................................................................................................5
Government agencies.............................................................................................................5
Internal and external customers.............................................................................................5
Lobby groups.........................................................................................................................6
Local inter-agency groups......................................................................................................6
Other organizations................................................................................................................6
Professional/occupational associations..................................................................................7
Project specific, consultancies...............................................................................................7
Support groups.......................................................................................................................7
Suppliers.................................................................................................................................7
Work team..............................................................................................................................7
Strengths and weakness of entering into relationship with these business clients.................8
Establishing contacts with two major participants of the business............................................8
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
Networking in business is an important socioeconomic activity of business because it
helps the business people meet with other stakeholders and entrepreneurs to enter into
business relationships with them, for sharing necessary information, and in order to identify
the proper business partners for different business ventures (Fang et al., 2015). The main
purpose of networking is that that it brings visibility as the businesses can to regularly
communicate with its partners and discuss on various issues and it also helps in reaching the
potential clients. The networking helps people connect with others who have common
interest and therefore decide to enter into partnership (Knoke, 2018). This is beneficial to
both the parties. There are different ways of networking it can be through events, through
online forums and other ways. The main objective of the study is to show the importance of
networking with the business clients through identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the
relationships and this study will also highlight the ways in which contacts can be built with
the most important clients.
Entering into networking relationships with business clients
Advisory committees
Advisory committees are a group of people who can be a part of the organization or
can be external to it and these people discuss on business issues and give important advices to
the business. The process of reaching these people is by meeting them through various
business meeting. Individuals can be asked to join the committee according to their
knowledge and skills (Ellison, Gibbs & Weber, 2015). People in the business meeting come
from different walks of life with different qualifications so the executives of the company can

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approach them and give them the offer to become advisors and to become a part of the
advisory groups.
Colleagues
In order to have proper connection and communication with the colleagues of a
business it can use social media within the workplace. If social networking is used in
workplace then the company can be connected with people even after office hours, can
circulate necessary information to them. In this way the colleagues can also understand the
company in a better way and it also acts as an engagement factor for the employees
(Hohenthal, Johanson & Johanson, 2015).
Committee
There can be different types of committees in an organization such as audit
committee, governance committee, finance committee and others. Networking with each of
them will almost be the same. These committees can be reached by the company with the
help of online forums. If the company has a robust online forum then all the committee
members can participate in that and enter into conversations with the company in order to
discuss on important issues. There can be different forms of internal online forums in which
all communications can take place.
Government agencies
Organizations need to maintain proper relationships with government agencies so that
all the issues that requires government consent can easily be got from them with minimum
time. A Liasoning department can be created separately for the purpose of communicating
with the government officials and for the purpose of maintaining proper relationship with
them.

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Internal and external customers
The business can create proper networking relationships with internal customers using
collaboration on social media. The social media platform will help in communicating all
necessary information that the company wants its customers to receive. Video conferencing
can be done with the internal customers in order to discuss on important matters, emailing
can be used for communication and creating network relationship with the internal customers.
In order to have proper communication with the employees, the company can provide regular
feedback reports to the company. The company can connect with the external customers
using PR agency connections, using social media platforms to reach the potential customers
and also to give necessary information to the existing customers and news outlets can be
used. The company can conduct various business meets and events to reach the potential
external customers.
Lobby groups
Lobby groups comprises of groups of individuals who engage in legislative activities
in order to promote and achieve their groups goals. Direct face to face contact can be created
with these groups of people. The company can also contact these groups by mailing them.
Local inter-agency groups
These groups help in advocating activities and the company can establish network
relationships with them through face to face contact. The company can arrange for various
business meeting where these local groups can be called for explaining the objectives of
business with them.

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Other organizations
In order to create networks with other organizations Laisoning department can be
there in an organization and other PR departments can be kept for maintaining proper
relationships with other organizations (Eustice et al., 2015). The company can attend various
business meeting in which other organizations take part and the executive of the company can
approach them.
Professional/occupational associations
There are various professional associations for protecting the interest of the
professionals working in an organization. The executive of the business can join the
association because it helps in enhancing networks and entering into these associations will
provide a sense of trust and security to the company. The company can reach the association
through the association’s website.
Project specific, consultancies
The companies can reach the consultancies that they need to enter into relationship
with through their websites, blogs and can meet them through various events in which
consultants are speaking. Many consultants write their own blogs and through that the
companies can reach them and gather further information.
Support groups
Support groups are provided by various community organizations and many support
groups are available online (Ellison & Vitak, 2015). The company can approach the
community organizations for connecting with the support groups.

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Suppliers
The company can reach suppliers through contact with the wholesales, by meeting these
people in the marketplace of B2B. Various forums can be the ideal place for finding the
suppliers and the company can also prepare its profile in LinkedIn.
Work team
For improving the connectivity within the group and improve the team works intranet
can be used.
Strengths and weakness of entering into relationship with these business clients
The main strengths of maintaining proper network relationship with the business
clients is that they can help the company to grow, to reach the potential customer’s and send
necessary information to the existing customers, can help in improving the communication
between all the clients and the company. Making use of social network platforms in
workplace can help in not only proper sharing of information but it also helps in
communicating without any geographical barriers (Burke & Noumair, 2015). The
disadvantage of networking relationships with business clients is that if too much of emphasis
is given on social media platforms for connecting people within and outside organizations, it
can result in reduced productivity.
Establishing contacts with two major participants of the business
Two of the most important business network opportunities is that of using social
media platform for establishing network relationship with customers and through various
business events. These two network opportunities help an organization in achieving its goals
of creating harmonious relationship with the business clients and also in achieving a win-win
position for all the parties engaged (Arnold, 2017). The company can create contacts with

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other organizations through various business meeting. Then they can proceed to discuss their
goals and determine some common goals such that both the parties can maintain harmonious
relationship with each other while entering into partnership with each other. After meeting in
the business events the companies can decide for further business meeting therefore business
events are a very important source of establishing network between the company and other
organizations. The company can reach its external customers through the use of social media
platforms. These platforms can help in sharing necessary information to the customers
without actually meeting with them face-to-face. The customers can also easily communicate
with the company with the help of these platforms. The company can meet many customers
with the help of social networking platforms such as LinkedIn and others. The company can
create external online forums for dealing with the customers queries and meeting their needs
directly, through this forum, the company can give immediate responses to the customer’s
feedback and queries. With the customers of the present generation being tech savvy, they
find it much comfortable to contact the company using social media platforms. Therefore
from the above instances it can be said that social media platforms are very important for
establishing network relationships.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that it is important for organizations to
establish network relationships with various client groups such that communication can be
easily made, all necessary information can be shared, better relationship can be maintained,
can help in reaching potential customers and grow. However, there are certain disadvantages
such as proper connectivity involves, making use of social media platforms, the company
needs to ensure that its communication with extenal stakeholders through the platform is such

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that it does not affect its reputation. Making use of social media platforms can also affect the
productivity of the internal customers.
References
Arnold, M. (2017). Fostering sustainability by linking co-creation and relationship
management concepts. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, 179-188.
Burke, W. W., & Noumair, D. A. (2015). Organization Development (Paperback): A Process
of Learning and Changing. FT Press.
Ellison, N. B., & Vitak, J. (2015). Social network site affordances and their relationship to
social capital processes. The handbook of the psychology of communication
technology, 32, 205-228.
Ellison, N. B., Gibbs, J. L., & Weber, M. S. (2015). The use of enterprise social network sites
for knowledge sharing in distributed organizations: The role of organizational
affordances. American Behavioral Scientist, 59(1), 103-123.
Eustice, K. F., Lawson, N., Yetisgen-Yildiz, M., Kawai, K., Perkowitz, M., Ferrel, P. J., &
Lazarus, J. D. (2015). U.S. Patent No. 9,183,535. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office.
Fang, R., Landis, B., Zhang, Z., Anderson, M. H., Shaw, J. D., & Kilduff, M. (2015).
Integrating personality and social networks: A meta-analysis of personality, network
position, and work outcomes in organizations. Organization Science, 26(4), 1243-
1260.
Hohenthal, J., Johanson, J., & Johanson, M. (2015). Network knowledge and business-
relationship value in the foreign market. In Knowledge, Networks and Power (pp.
187-224). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

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Knoke, D. (2018). Changing organizations: Business networks in the new political economy.
Routledge.